The Fall of the House of Sonny Part Three: The Discussion
by Gillen1962
Summary: As Port Charles reacts to the news about Sonny, Danger grows and the Legends of Port Charles meet


In the art therapy room of General Hospital, Franco Baldwin sat with a paint brush in his hand and stared at the blank canvas. Once he had been a world famous performance artist, once he had been a serial killer, once he had been a mad man, once he had been so many things that he was often baffled as to how they all created the man he was now.

If he was to draw a timeline of his life none of it would make sense. It made no sense to him. Most of it seemed like a dream lived by another man and fed to him like the stories of ancient demons.

For those reasons he did not dwell on the past much. Now he was an art therapist at General Hospital, he was married to the amazing Elizabeth Webber and Stepfather to her three boys. He treated Drew Cain the man he was raised with as a brother. The insane Heather Webber he had to admit was as likely to be his real mother as anyone else and if Scott Baldwin was not his father than he would have to have chosen him to be.

Having Scotty Baldwin as a Father gave him family. His recently deceased grandparents Lee and Gail, his sister Captain Serena Baldwin, his late brother Logan and his departed sister Karen.

It was Karen he thought about this morning. She would have been the Baldwin sibling closest to his age. Older by just a few years. He thought of her as the one he would have been close to, the one he would have confided in, the one who when he had a spat with Elizabeth he would call and ask how to make it up to his bride for being such an idiot.

He had not known until last night that they shared the troubled past of children who had been molested, he by his adoptive mother's boy friend Jim Harvey and Karen first by her mother's boyfriend Roy Conway and later by Sonny Corinthos.

Harvey and Conway were dead, beyond his reach. But Sonny. Sonny that son of a bitch was still very much alive.

Franco picked up his brush and painted a dark black streak across the canvas. Alive for Now.

Sonny Corinthos lay on the floor of Molly Davis' writing loft in a fetal position screaming over and over again. "I never touched her. I never hit Stone. I never sold drugs. I am a good man. I am a Good Man."

Jason Morgan knelt next to him saying "Sonny, Sonny, are you all right "repeatedly. These were not the situations that Jason Morgan could handle. He was good very good in action, when thought was replaced by instinct, when emotional reasoning was replaced by cold logic.

An accident decades ago had blown his frontal lobes, they were damaged beyond repair. Emotional intelligence, even emotional feeling was beyond his capability. Over the years he had learned how to mimic feeling. Much the same way as children of Substance Abusers learn to mimic what real family relationship are, but it was just imitation. They were not real emotions.

Sonny had always shown Jason loyalty above all else and so Jason dealt with Sonny on the bases of loyalty. But any over loading of emotion all but crippled Jason as he attempted to determine which emotion to respond to.

In so many ways these two men were the most unlikely of friends. Sonny had bipolar disorder, his emotions were by the nature of his mental illness raw and continually influx. Rage one minute could be replaced with tenderness and devotion the next. Deep Depression gave way to manic activity. Emotion for Sonny was a roller coaster.

Jason on the other hand could handle and process only one emotion at a time and was if he were to be truthful most comfortable when he did not need to display any emotion, when he was a blank slate, simply being and not feeling.

The rolling mass of emotion on the floor thoroughly confused the empty vacant eyes of the man who knelt beside him.

Jason took out his cell phone and called the one woman who understood them both. "Carly. It's Jason, I am at Molly's loft. Sonny needs help."

She hung up before Jason could even tell her what was wrong. He knew she was on her way. To both of them.

To say that the offices of Crimson were busy as the morning faded to afternoon would be a massive understatement. Maxie Jones had been fielding phone calls all day concerning the story that Molly Davis had written for the daily newspaper the Crusader and in which it had been revealed that a more in-depth article would in the next edition of Crimson Magazine

Of course, Maxie did not know what Molly would write, did not know how the typically fashion magazine would handle the hard news story, did not know much of anything Other than of course that the phones needed to be answered. The Editor of Crimson her boss and sister-in-law Nina Reeves had been in closed door meetings with advertisers since the doors had opened this morning.

Maxie needed a break. She called down to her assistant one floor below and transfer all calls to her. She was about to pick up her purse and go get a cup of coffee when the elevator doors opened, and Sam McCall stepped out

Sam and Maxie had been friends for a while. Both women seemed to feel that they should be closer, but the moment never seemed to happen. Still Maxie knew from the look on Sam's face that she needed a shoulder.

She put on her big smile and said "Sam you are just in time. I am on my way to Kelly's for a cup of coffee and the biggest cinnamon bun they have left."

Sam smiled weakly. "I don't think I can eat."

Maxie laughed. "Girl we can always eat." Then she stopped and was more serious. "Are you okay?"

Sam shrugged. "I came here hoping you could give me some more information on the story. I can't seem to get a hold of Molly."

Maxie shook her head. "I wish I could. We know what has been published and of course we have all seen the tapes."

Sam shuddered, she had seen them the day before, hours before anyone else had. "They are disturbing."

Maxie cocked her eyebrow "To say the least."

"Did you know her?" Sam asked.

"Karen? No, well kind of I think she baby sat for me once or twice. I was a kid though; I have no real memories of her. "

Sam nodded. "I don't know what to do with this. I can't compartmentalize it like I have done with so much of what Sonny has done." 

"This is a very different Sonny that is for sure."

"Is it though?" Sam asked.

Maxie looked at Sam puzzled. "what do you mean?"

"Just that over the years Sonny has done a lot of things that were questionable, not stuff connected to him staying at the top of the business, that you can kind of just ignore as part of his life style but he has done things to other people that had nothing to do with his business."

Maxie had to agree Sonny had hung AJ Quartermaine from a meat hook in order to obtain custody of Michael, AJ who Sonny later shot and killed in cold blood had not been in the mob. He had also framed Jax using both drugs and a rape accusation.

And Maxie would never forgive him for shooting Robin in her own home, as he chased after Jax. These were horrible things that Sonny had only done for himself. Maybe Sam was right maybe these tapes were not a very different Sonny at all.

She smiled at her friend. "Well Come on let's get that coffee and we can chat about anything but Sonny. Tell me how you and Jason are doing?"

Sam returned the smile though hers was sadder. "I am not sure talking about Jason will be any happier, let's just talk about the kids."

The Floating Rib, in it's two different incarnations had a long storied history in Port Charles. And if the history of the Rib was storied then the shared and individual history of the figures that sat around the center table of the restaurant as morning gave way to lunch hour was the stuff of legend.

Mayor Laura Webber sat dead center as befit both that history and her position. On her right was her husband Dr. Kevin Collins. Next to him famed super-spy Anna Devane, beside her, as if he had always been was her former husband, ex-spy and current District Attorney Robert Scorpio. His brother Mac Scorpio the acting Police Commissioner was next with his wife Felicia Jones-Scorpio closing the circle.

Robert picked up a copy of the newspaper. "I'm afraid that the time has come to deal with this once and for all Corinthos has become more trouble than he is worth."

"Sonny was always more trouble then he was worth." Responded Mac.

Laura shook her head, "You know that is not true Mac, despite all of his criminal activity Sonny has done a lot of good for this town and that cannot be forgotten."

Anna had to reluctantly agree. "It is no secret that since the 90s Sonny's refusal to deal in drugs and women has kept the trafficking in both in this town to the lowest levels in the state."

"But that is not going to be the case for long." Said Robert. "The heads of the five families are not going to take orders from someone with these accusations."

"Criminals with Standards?" Asked Kevin.

"Yes mate, exactly." Robert responded. "Members of the mob will put up with a lot, but molesting children is not among those things."

Mac took a sip of his coffee. "The problem this town will be facing soon is that Sonny is not likely to go peacefully, so we are looking at a major gang war when they move against him."

"A gang war that will not only hurt the town but personally effect our families." Felicia answered.

"To make matters worse there is no natural successor that is likely to emerge." Added Anna. "As much as I of all people hate to say this it seems that Julian Jerome has indeed left the mob behind and I cannot see the families rallying around Ava."

"After the whole thing with my brother, Ryan, I am not sure that Ava has the heart for it anymore either." Said Kevin.

"I am concerned about Sonny, he is much older than the last time any major move was made against him, and this time he will be fighting battles on the personal front as well." Laura said.

"Personal both internal and external." Said Mac. "I had to have two officers accompany a representative from child and family services to his home this morning. Ava and Jax have gotten emergency custody of Joss and Avery."

"Oh my." Said Laura.

Kevin put his coke down and stood up. He leaned down and kissed his wife. "And my friends we have reached the point in this conversation where I cannot help."

"What?" Robert said.

"I am Sonny's therapist. I simply cannot be part of any in depth conversations concerning his problems. "

"We understand Kevin." Said Felicia. "I hope you can be of some help to Sonny."

"So, do I" said Kevin. With another kiss for his wife and a pat of the shoulder for his best friend Mac Kevin was gone.

Laura shook her head. "Of course, I am worried about what a mob war could do to the town, not to mention by family, Sonny and I share grandchildren, but I just do not know if this weakened Sonny can survive"

"Do we care?" Robert asked.

The others sat in silence. Finally, Mac spoke first. "I have wanted to see Sonny behind bars for years, that said, there is no denying how good he was to Robin when she was first diagnosed with HIV."

"Which she got from sleeping with his henchman." Robert snapped.

As always Anna ignored the brusquer characteristics of her ex-husband. "I agree with Mac, I would lose no sleep over Sonny in jail, but I do not want him murdered by some other crime boss."

"I believe Sonny has to face reckoning for his treatment of Karen and others, some long-term rehabilitation stay. I am not sure about prison." Mayor Webber said.

"I agree with Laura" said Felicia "Plus at this point are any of us really confident that he would not just find some fast way out of prison like he did when he killed AJ?"

Robert Shrugged. "There is that, the man has more lives than a cat."

"But cats retire, they let younger cats hunt." Said Mac.

Laura nodded. "I think I see what you are saying Mac. I think what we can do, maybe what we should do is gather enough evidence against Sonny to remove him from power, then go to him and offer him a deal. Rehab, some sex offender classes, maybe even a registration, but he avoids prison."

"Gathering evidence against Sonny has been tried before." Mac replied.

"True little brother, but this new information. I can't help but wonder if there will be more people willing to talk to us now. Especially if we phrase it in terms of 'helping' Sonny."

"Who do you have in mind Robert?" Felicia asked.

"Well the Mayor's Son-in-law for one, and Drew Cain, who has all of Jason Morgan's memories for another. Maybe even Franco Baldwin."

"What would Franco know about Sonny?" Anna asked.

"Nothing." Robert replied. "But he spent a great deal of time studying how Jason Morgan will react to things. Cain may have Jason memories; But Baldwin knows how to press his buttons. And let's be real, any move we make against Sonny, even a benevolent one, will put us in direct conflict with Morgan."

"Dante is still at the WSB Center." Laura said.

"I can talk to him. "Said Anna.

"No Luv. I'll call Frisco and do that. You have another assignment." Robert replied.

"What?"

"My sources say that Molly Davis is staying at Wyndemere. We should know what she plans to put in that magazine before she writes it, and she may even have other information she is now ready to talk about concerning her Uncle Sonny."

"And I should go to Wyndemere?" Anna asked

"Luv, as much as I hate to admit it. No one has a better chance of getting Valentin Cassadine signed on to this then you. If he now has any influence over Molly, then you're the girl for that job."

"Woman" Laura, Anna and Felicia all said at the same time.

Robert rolled his eyes. "Woman."

"And Drew?" Mac asked.

They all sat silently. Finally, Laura spoke. "I am ashamed to say it, but once Drew was revealed not to be Jason, we all kind of just forgot about him. He is Alan's son and Alan was a good friend to everyone at this table and not one of us tried to befriend Drew."

There was no denying the truth of the statement.

Jason got up from the couch in the Corinthos living room as Carly came down the stairs. "How is he?"

Carly walked over to the wet bar and poured herself a drink. "Resting. He took his meds and a sleeping pill. Hopefully when he wakes up, he will have calmed down enough to handle this matter."

Jason nodded.

"Jason I just do not know what we are going to do. When Sonny wakes up and finds out that Jax and Ava have Avery and Joss, he will be furious."

Jason nodded again. Carly was giving information, that he could absorb and process, but there was underlying emotion attached that he could not understand. He assumed she missed her children. He had children, Danny and Jake, and when they were around him, he was able to process the joy that they felt and channel it back to them as a representation of a loving father, but when they were out of sight, they were literally out of mind. Unlike a parent with a functioning emotional system, Jason never worried about his children when they were absent from him because he literally never even thought of them.

Jason was about to say something which experience had taught him was comforting when Max walked into the room.

"Mrs. C, Jason. Fredo Mastercola of behalf of the five families is here to see Sonny."

"Damn" said Carly. "That was faster than I expected it to be."

She looked at Jason who shrugged. "Send him in" She said to Max.

Fredo Mastercola was about as stereotypical old school Italian mob boss as you could get. A solid stock of gray hair, a refined business suit and an air of confidence that was stifling.

"Ahh Mr. Morgan how are you. I have not seen you since you murdered my brother Carlo."

Jason smiled. People tried to say that was his confident air. But the truth was the subtlety of Mastercola's sarcasm was lost on the man without frontal lobes. Since the man had said what he said pleasantly Jason responded in kind.

"Good to see you as well." 

Fredo ignored Carly and said. "I need to speak to Sonny."

"Sonny is not here right now." Carly said.

Fredo looked at her like she was a disease, and in his mind, she was, this loud brash woman had been a continual distraction to Sonny and the business enterprises he ran for decades.

"If I wished to speak to Sonny's Goomah I would have spoken to you."

"I am not Sonny's mistress. I am his wife." Snapped Carly.

"For what the fifth time?" Fredo answered pleasantly.

Jason stepped in, the increase of emotion in the room was giving him a headache. "Sonny is not here how can we help you?"

Fredo took a long deep breath. "You can tell Sonny that he will need to divest himself from his holdings during this current unpleasantness. The Five Families will not do business with an accused child molester, it is unseemly."

"Sonny is not a child molester" Carly yelled.

Did this woman ever speak in soft tones, Fredo wondered. "Which is why I said accused."

'Because your hands are so clean?" She responded.

"Of seventeen-year-old, yes they are." Fredo said. "Morgan, this is a courtesy call. Not a request. This is the polite stop by."

"And next you will not be polite?" Said Carly.

Fredo shrugged. "Please tell Sonny that this is business not personal. If he can disprove these accusations, then of course we would be happy to do business with him again and to recompense him any money's lost during his…." He looked for the word. "Hiatus."

Fredo turned to leave, realizing that this was a matter the families should have addressed a long time ago, Sonny was repulsive enough to deal with, with his fake high morals and refusal to allow drugs and women to be traded in his home city, but allying himself with such a loud abrasive woman and with such a clearly idiotic second in command was distressing.

As soon as Fredo exited Carly spun at Jason. "You have to do something."

Jason looked at her puzzled. He had no idea what to do and said so. "Like what?"

"I don't know." Carly responded, "Kill him."

Anna had left for Wyndemere; Felicia was tending to stock in the back of the rib and Mac and Laura were at a table discussing the police budget.

Robert sat at the bar sipping a whiskey. He took out his phone and dialed.

"Frisco, its your favorite retired agent, no not Donnelly. Scorpio. Look mate I need a favor."

Robert paused and listened. "Ahh you do as well, good a little quid pro quo, then. Yeah okay I need to see Dante. No no, I know he cannot come back. I will go to him. It is a personal matter, but I think under the circumstances while he has been reluctant before this time, he may be willing to help."

Another pause.

"Wonderful. No, I will fly to DC immediately, I need to be back in Port Charles by tomorrow anyway. Now what can I do for you."

Scorpio listened for a long minute and then said. "Are you kidding me mate? No no of course I will help her in whatever way I can, my whole office will."

Robert looked over at his brother and Laura sadly. "This is going to do a lot of damage here, Frisco, are we sure about it? No No I understand, yes bringing the whole mess home is the right idea."

Captain Serena Baldwin stood outside the door of a solitary confinement cell on the US Army Base just outside of Riyad. Her orders were to ship out within the next 72 hours along with the prisoner in this cell.

She threw back the metal slot which allowed for communication. "Get whatever stuff you got ready you are being transferred."

From within the cell a voice said. "Where?"

"Stateside, back home."

"Home? Our home?"

She hated the idea of a personal connection. "Yes."

"Will I finally get a lawyer when we get there?"

"Yes, I will arrange for you to talk to an attorney as soon as you are settled."

"Good, I know who I want."

Serena shook her head, what idiot would take this case. "Who?"

"Scott Baldwin."

Franco had sat looking at the black smear on the canvas for a long while. It did nothing to change his mood or to make him feel less inclined to strangle Sonny with his bare hands.

There was a knock on the door of the art therapy room. Franco turned to see Kevin Collins standing there.

"Doctor." Franco said. "What can I do for you?'

Kevin shrugged in that easy way that he had and said. "I just thought I would pop my head in and see how you were doing."

"Oh, I am just great Kevin, just great. I mean who doesn't want to learn, years after she is dead, that your sister was molested by the same kind of monster that molested you when you were a kid."

Kevin leaned on the edge of a desk and nodded. "Yes, I have some experience in that area myself as you know."

"What possesses people like that Doc, what would make Sonny exploit her like that?"

"Franco the reasons people do things are never as simple as we would like them to be. People are rarely black and white. In some ways it is the best thing about my brother Ryan, he is pure evil, there are no layers."

"That's an understatement." Franco replied. "I mean I don't know Sonny all that well, but this seems out of character."

Kevin nodded. "People change Franco, you know that better than anyone."

"Yeah but I never heard of them cutting anything out of Sonny's head to make him a better person."

"No but is it fair to place the responsibility for all the things you did on the brain tumor, we have talked about personal responsibility for actions."

"Exactly, I know Sonny had bipolar or something, but he has to step up and take responsibility for this. He hooked her on drugs Kevin. He made her a stripper!"

Kevin nodded. He had to agree, even if he could not say it out loud to Franco, that Sonny had to take some responsibility for this. He had been Sonny's therapist for a long while, but in all that time, Sonny had never mentioned Karen Wexler, never talked about what he did to her, never accepted that he had done anything except be her friend and try to help her. In Sonny's mind he had been her savior, her protector and Kevin doubted that the reality presented to Sonny on the tapes would change that in any way.

Franco slammed a paint brush down. "If only I had been here, if I had known her."

"That may be the hardest thing, Franco, to understand that there is nothing you can do for Karen now, her life, which I can say was full and filled with people who loved her, has sadly ended."

"You knew her, right?"

"Yes." Kevin said. "Not during the time period that Sonny and she were…well, not during that time period, but when she returned to Port Charles and was an intern here at GH. " 

"What was she like?"

Kevin smiled. "She was brilliant, a great doctor, filled with life and love. She…she tried hard to find the right love in her life. She was with Jagger Cates for a long time and when I knew her, she almost married Joe Scanlon."

"Who?"

"A young doctor here at GH. He practices medicine in Appalachia now I think, somewhere in West Virginia. Nice guy. His brother Frank is my adopted daughter Livvie's birth father."

"You have a daughter?"

"Yes, Lucy and I adopted her. We…we had a falling out many years ago. Neither Lucy nor I have heard from her in along long time."

"I'm sorry." Franco said.

"So am I, but I know that sometimes people need to wander far in order to find their way back home. Any way Karen was a great person. She was very close to your sister Serena."

Franco nodded. "That is a relationship I need to work on."

"You should Serena, is delightful. I was well, her Stepfather, for a while."

Franco nodded. "That is right, she considers Lucy to be her mother."

"One of her mothers. Your father's wife Dominque was dying, of the same kind of brain tumor that recently took Oscar, Lucy agreed to carry the baby for her and Scott. When Dominque passed away, Lucy stepped up and became a mother to Serena."

"A child raised by Scott and Lucy, that must be a sight to see." Franco laughed.

Kevin smiled. "Well I was there too."

Given Kevin's brother Franco was not sure that, that was any better. He thought about a comment but instead turned back to the subject at hand. "I feel such great anger towards Sonny."

"That is natural. Anger is a perfectly healthy emotion as long as you do not let it run wild."

"I would never do that Doc." Franco said.

Neither he nor Kevin were convinced that that was true.

Sam picked lackluster at the Danish in front of her. Maxie looked at her friend sadly. No matter how much she tried to cheer her friend up it was not working.

"Sam." Maxie finally said. "I know this is hard for you but there is literally nothing that you can do about it."

"I know. But Maxie I need to make some decisions about my children, especially Scout. I mean it is not like Jason would agree to stay away from Sonny."

Maxie took a sip of her coffee and said. "You don't think that Sonny is a danger to her, do you?"

Sam shook her head. "Maxie let's be fair. Sonny is a danger to everyone around him. I have been trying to reconcile this for years. The line of work that Sonny and Jason are in is by its nature dangerous. "

"Yes, but we have all kind of accepted that."

Sam nodded. "Yes, I know. I know and frankly I had pretty much made my peace with it. But Maxie that was the work they were in. This, this means Sonny himself is dangerous. And not just because of the Sexual molestation. He hooked her on drugs."

Maxie had her own past as a drug dealer, enabling Lucky to feed his habit many years ago. She was not proud of that part of her life.

"Sam, it is not like Sonny has not done some other pretty terrible things over the years."

"Exactly. Hanging AJ from a meat hook." Sam Said.

"Blowing up the car that Kristina and Johnny were in." Maxie added.

"Framing Jax for drugs"

"And rape."

"Shooting Dante in the chest."

"Covering up Claudia's death, which sent Michael to jail."

"Shooting Carly in the head while she was giving birth to Morgan."

"Killing AJ"

The two women sat for a moment and looked at each other. Finally, Maxie spoke. "When you spell them out, they are pretty awful."

Sam agreed. "Maybe we have all been kidding ourselves all these years about Sonny."

"Maybe we have" Maxie replied. "I wonder though, does that say bad things about Sonny or about all the rest of us?"

Sam was not sure.

"Drew was never comfortable with Scout around Sonny; he will be less so now."

"How are Drew and Jason reacting to this. Jason use to date Karen, so both he and Drew knew her, even back then." Maxie asked.

"Jason has made up his mind that Sonny must be telling the truth. "Sam said. "I have not really had the chance to talk to him much. He did not come home last night. Sonny needed him."

"Sonny and Carly always seem to need him." Maxie said.

"He is the adult in the room" Sam said laughing a little.

"And Drew?"

Sam shrugged. "I dropped off Scout to spend a few days with him at the Q mansion this morning, but we did not get a chance to talk alone. Ned and Olivia were in the middle of huge argument in the foyer."

"About?"

"What else Sonny. Is any one in town talking about anything but Sonny today?"

Robert Scorpio sat waiting for his plane to take off. He had gone back and forth in his mind about this phone call, should he or shouldn't he.

Finally, he did. "Hey Darling it's your favorite dashingly handsome former lover. No Eckhart is still dead as far as I know, Robert. Is the boy with you? Hmmm Okay, have him call me would you. Thanks love."

Mac and Laura were deep in the midst of budget talks when they took a break with Mac's question.

"Will you talk to Franco?"

Laura nodded. "Yes, I think I am the best one to do it. I know that it is painful for him to talk about his past, but I think in this case he will understand why we need his input."

Mac nodded. "Agreed, but I don't want to do to him what has been done in the past, using his history to coerce him into cooperating. I just would not feel right about that on any level."

Laura agreed. "You are right, He is really trying to change his life. "She then changed the subject. "Drew is the best source we may have."

Mac nodded. "Though I am not sure how implanted memories will hold up in court."

"Hopefully we do not need to worry about court."

"True, I guess I will go to Drew. I don't know him well, but then again none of us really do."

Laura looked at Mac. "We are doing the right thing, aren't we?"

"Absolutely Look Madame Mayor this conflict between Sonny and the five families is coming, we need to look at all angles to get out in front of it."

Mac had no sooner finished speaking when the entire bar shook, and the sound of an explosion rocked the glass ware from behind the counter.

Meanwhile at General Hospital the flash of the explosion sent a burst of light through the windows of the art therapy room. Franco and Kevin raced to the window.

"Where did that come from" Franco asked.

"The Docks." Kevin said.

The heat from the explosion was so intense that Maxie and Sam at the outdoor table at Kelly's felt it across their faces.

"Oh My God. "Said Sam. "Look"

She pointed and Maxie followed her finger towards the sky, the raging fire was within their line of sight.

Across town at Sonny and Carly's home, Jason's cell phone buzzed.

He answered it as Carly looked on. "What? No stay there I am on my way." He hung up.

Carly looked at him and said. "What?"

"There was an explosion at the Coffee Wearhouse, the fire is raging out of control."

"Fredo?"

Jason nodded.

Mac and Laura were in front of the Floating Rib.

"Oh God, Mac what is that?" Laura said.

Mac saw Sonny's warehouse burning in the afternoon sky and said. "That Madame Mayor is the gang war arriving in Port Charles." 


End file.
